New Trail Ride

No work today, great weather, and mountain biking most of the day--could you ask for anything more. I went with Dot and Jen this morning to pre-ride the new Snowbird course. This year we do not have to ride up the yucky gravel hill, instead there is a new trail to ride up. I wanted to make sure I got a chance to ride it and today was the perfect day for it.

When we arrived around 8:30 am and the temperature was about 57 degrees--perfect riding weather. The trail was a little wet from the rain the day before, but no too bad. There were some slick roots and rocks along the way, but for the most part it was negotiable. Then we came to the new trail.

The first part of the new trail is still in grass. I don't know if they are going to dig this out or not, but it does ride through a somewhat swampy area. The first lap I walked through the grass to a portion that was cut out, the second lap there was no getting off the bike and getting my feet wet--it helps to know what to expect.

The first little portion of the new trail is very nice. It is close together much like the first, and a little rough of course, because people have not been on it much. I am sure it will not take long for it to get packed down. After a little bit the single track opens up into a wider, faster trail. Yohoo!!! Great passing and lots of fun. Well at least lap 2 was. The first lap it was still very damp and the dirt stuck to my tires and I ended up not having any tread showing the entire way up the hill. By the time I got to the top I felt like I had been carrying 20 pounds extra on my bike.

Going up is very nice the trail is wide, there are many switchbacks going up, and there is plenty of passing room. Although if I had the opportunity I would prefer to go down this trail, it looks like it would be a rip. The good part getting to the top of Snowbird is now fun and relatively easy as long as you are not caring an extra 20 pounds.

At the top of the trail you start back into the old trail with the dreaded gravel road descent. For the most part today it was not so bad, but I think the rain had a lot to do with that. There are still a lot of precarious places and you need to be careful. I am glad I ride the race at the first and not the end this time--I am sure there will be a lot more loose rocks later in the day.

The trail is in great shape and a lot more fun with this new single track. I ended up doing 2 laps and letting Dot do 3 while I took a lot of pictures of the new trail. As you will see it is pretty nice.
Towards the first of the course. This is not the new section.
First part of the new trail when it opens up.

One of the many switchbacks leading up the hill.

View from the trail to the top.

I thought this huge rock where the switchback was cool.

View from the new trail.....isn't it beautiful.

Rock formation leading to the end. Helps with the water drainage.

Trail at the top of the hill.

Another spectacular view...I am sure I will not notice this during the race.

I like how the clouds enveloped the mountain.

Dot riding towards the end of the trail.

Second part of the day was spent riding Lambert Park with my family and Karl and Dot's family. Dot, Jonny and Joey have never been to Lambert and I have been telling them forever how much fun Rodeo Down is. Mandy ending up being in the lead and took us down River and back up High Bench. I was really impressed with how well Joey did, he is only 5 and was able to do most the of trail.

At the top of the 3 way intersection we headed towards Rodeo Up. This time I took the lead. All of the kids did great, but they were tired by the time we got to the top. We rested on the bench and I let them know how much fun the down hill was going to be. I don't think they were totally convinced.

Mandy has been down Rodeo Down, so we let her go first and then I followed. I can't believe how well she did going down the trail. She loves going down--somehow I need to convince her up is not so bad.

At the bottom we waited for the rest of the crew. Jonny and Dot showed up first. Jonny liked it and said it was not bad at all. Then came Joey, Karl and Royce. You should have seen Joey's face he was beaming from ear to ear. He had a blast. In fact it didn't take much to convince him to do it again. So up we went to the top and then back down. Everyone was still smiles at the end. I don't think there could have been a better day than riding with friends and family.

Great Riding

It has been a great week for riding. The weather has been nice, and I have been trying to take advantage of the great weather.

This is Steve on the BST, getting ready to take off and enjoy the downhill.
Top of the BST overlooking Orem, Lindon & Pleasant Grove.

Rode through a paintball war. Luckily they did not shoot our way.

Top of Chevron--love this climb.

Royce & Mandy riding down Ziggy at Lambert Park.

Mandy taking on Ziggy!

Mandy riding the trail.

Lambert Park on a great sunny day!

Mandy on middle at Lambert Park.

On Monday there was still snow on the river trail after Bridal Veil Falls. Skinny tires are not the best for going over this.

Lambert Park in the Dark

Went out early this morning for a ride at Lambert Park before the storm came. Met up with Stephen, his son Ryan, Todd, Eric, and Kerry. We drove and parked in Alpine. We got there at the same time as another rider, Russ, so he joined up and off we went. When we started it was pretty dark and we were thinking we should have probably brought our lights, but luckily Todd & Russ had lights, so we followed. Once we actually got in to Lambert Park it became light enough that we did not need them anymore.

The ride was a lot of fun. We rode Rodeo twice, and Ruin twice. I rode behind Todd on Ruin, wow can that guy jump. He hit every jump with great air and nice little twists to the bike. I definitely need to follow him more to improve my technique.

After Ruin we went up White Dog. We didn't take the new Ziggy, but I have it on my list of to do's. Instead we connected up to a trail I had not been on that drops us right back to where we were parked. This was a true mountain bike trail. It had tight switch backs and some very precarious edges. I was quite thrilled that I made it through most of this trail. We had three flat tires on the ride. Russ had 2 and Todd had 1. I used the flat tires as an opportunity to take some pictures, because this group is a go, go group and there is not time to get my camera out to take pictures.
Russ riding up the trail.
Todd & Stephen fixing his tire.

Todd & Ryan looking at the trail we are getting ready to ride.

Funderful Week

This week has been soooo busy and full of great things that I have not had a lot of time to write about all of the wonderful things. So here it goes in a somewhat readers digest version.

New Job
This is probably the main reason I have not been writing. As most of you know I am a loan officer, and without much explanation all of you know how the year and the market has been. Last weekend my husband and I decided it is probably time to look for employment that is more stable. This was a hard thing to do as I love my job and the company I work for. On Monday I applied for a job. On Tuesday I had an interview--little concerned because I did not get the chance to research the company for the job interview. On Wednesday morning I dropped off a thank you note for the interview. Wednesday afternoon I received a call asking me to come in for a second interview on Friday. Thursday evening was spent researching company and any thing else that may help me to do well at the interview. Friday interview in the morning. Friday night at 7:45 pm I GOT THE JOB!!! I only have to take a written test and past the drug test and should start in the next week or so. Good news for the more stable employment.

AF Canyon
Went and did the loop Thursday night. No need to talk about the trail you have read about it before. The funny thing or kind of funny thing that happened was Steve broke his chain. While he was fixing it the link flipped off in to the grass and leaves. Kerry and I were looking for it and Kerry found a link. Guess what it was not the link that had dropped it was one someone else had lost taken off their chain when it was broke. What are the chances of stopping in the exact same spot someone lost their chain, losing our link and finding theirs. We did eventually find our link. How weird is that losing a link, finding someone elses link and then finding ours.

Lambert Park - Girls Ride
Friday I went with Jen and Jolene for a ride at Lamberts Park. Jen has only ridden rodeo down and rodeo up, so it was fun to take her on a few of the other trails. We rode river, poppy, ziggy, high bench, lamberts luge, ruin, rodeo up (2x's), rodeo down (2x's) and middle spring. During our ride we saw a totally cool, awful crash. We had arrived at the top of ruin and was deciding where we wanted to stop to get pictures of us jumping. As we were talking a guy rode by and took the first jump, landed and did a full front flip bike and all. We were a bit stunned, but he jumped up almost immediately which was surprising considering the crash, dropped one swear word (pretty impressive considering the severity of the crash), and then looked around for his bike. We went down to help and found out when he had landed on his front tire it exploded. He was really lucky it could have been a lot worse. We helped with supplies so he could fix his tire and then he was on his way. I know it is awful to say, but that was a really cool crash.
Deer near the brush by Rodeo Down.Jen, Kendra and Jolene on the Ruin trail.
Taking the jumps going down Ruin.


BlackHawk - Bikepeddler group ride

Saturday I went for group ride with a bunch of guys--bike peddler sponsored the ride. It was a fun ride. We started at the blackhawk trail and went all the way down to bennie's creek. On the ride I had 2 small crashes. The first one was the dumb crash. I was riding a long a flat trail when my tire hit the side of the trail and I kind of fell right off my bike into the meadow. I had to laugh, because there was no reason to fall off my bike that way. The second I couldn't figure out why I crashed. I went down up small slope, and then a quick up that banked left at the same time. I started to endo but twisted to the side instead and went off the bike. No damage done, but once again I could not figure out what caused the tumble.


Now for the trail, it was okay, but the first part of the trail did not flow very well. We would get riding and then all of the sudden you would go up hill, or you would have a sharp turn that interrupted the speed and flow of the downhill. Eventually though (about 5.5 miles into the trail) the trail started to flow and it became an absolute blast. There was twisting, turning, ups and downs, plenty of little jumps and just a lot of fun. By the end I couldn't stop smiling. It's definitely a ride I hope to do again.

Gareth pounding out the pedals. Jake putting it in gear. He's thinking about joing UMB race team. I told him how great everyone is, but I guess he will need to come out and find out for himself.
Steve riding with his trusty bear bell...it works.


Josh putting the flex on his bike.

Sam and James working their way on the trail.

Eventful MTB Day

The day started at 7:30 am with a ride up in AF Canyon. I met Steve on at the turn out, and we drove up to the parking spot on the road by the Salamander Flats trail. I couldn't believe how many people were there so early in the morning. Normally when I go it's between 9 and 10 and there are not near as many people. We started out on Salamander to Pine Hollow, along the way Steve showed me the big downed tree off the trail. I have never seen it, but it has always been there.

This tree is huge. For anyone that knows how tallsteve is you get an idea of how big the tree is.

From Pine Hollow we went on Ridge 157 and then diverged from the loop/route we normally take. Steve gave me a great tour of trails that I have wanted to explore, but have been unsure about doing on my own. The first new trail was Mud Spring Flat. What a fun uphill!!! There was some technical challenge of logs, trees and a few rocks. At the meadow of Mud Spring we ran into some other riders (Justin & Aaron) and they joined us as we headed east onto a little trail to a look out that shows all of AF Canyon and has the most spectacular view.

Pictures do not do justice to the view.

Steve, Justin & Aaron checking out the view and all the trails below. Me standing on different rocks with two great views in the back ground.

Steve and a great view of Canyon.From there it was back to Mud Springs and taking on the downhill. What a fun downhill. It was very technical and there were two spots I needed to walk, but had no shame about walking them. This trail would be perfect for those with a downhill bike. I guess that's why we saw so many riders on downhill bikes when we were riding up.

Part way down Mud springs we came to a 3 way intersection. From here we turned up Tibble Fork. Parts of this was difficult to ride and I was not able to clear everything, but what I couldn't clear was minimal and most of the uphill was not too bad. There were a few riders going down we had to watch out for as riders do not usually go up this particular trail. On this particular trail I say the downhill has the right of way. While going up this trail Steve ran into one of his neighbors riding with a friend. His neighbor was riding a fully ridged bike on this downhill. I couldn't imagine how that must have been with all of the log drops.

The top of Tibble put us into the 4 corners area. Here I went a little bit west on the Ridge 157 trail and once again saw a beautiful view all the way down to Tibble Fork parking. I have noticed from Thursday to Saturday there were a lot more red trees, it looks like fall is coming fast.

Back to 4 corners we dropped down Deer Creek South Fork and finished off the route we normally take. It was a beautiful day for a ride, and today I made a lot of stops to enjoy the beauty all around. I don't think I could ever get tired of riding in AF Canyon.

After my AF Canyon ride I met my family at Lambert Park for a family ride. Shandy got to ride my fs bike for the first time. For the family ride we kept it simple going down Middle and up High Bench. Royce and Shandy rode together at the front, Mandy and I rode at the back with me in the very back helping Mandy learn some mtb skills.

Mandy ready to go down Middle.

Royce coming through the trees on Spring.Shandy ready to head down the trail.

Shandy and Mandy did great going down hill. Shandy had a little bit of a struggle adjusting to a new bike, but as she got going she got better. Mandy noticed as she rode she would bounce around in her seat as she went over the rocks. I showed her how to stand as she went downhill, and she did great balancing, standing and sitting back just enough so her balance was perfect on the bike.

At the bottom of Middle we went on High Bench and this is where the family got a little too split up. Mandy and I were together, and enjoying the trail when we came around a corner and found Shandy sitting on the the trail. Somehow Shandy had fallen off her bike and ended up with a large gash in her arm. Shandy was not in a good way. There was a little pool of blood on the ground and she was not feeling well. Which showed by the way she was talking as I tried to assess the situation and see how she was doing. She stated she was faint and going in to shock and needed to stand up. Humorous now, but at the time I was a little worried. I made sure she did not stand up, gently moved her off the trail, and then put Mandy in charge of looking out for her sister.

Shandy's wound and the pools of blood she left in the dirt. Please note these were taken after I got back to the trail with the car.I left Mandy to help Shandy, and took off up the trail to catch Royce. I don't know how far up he was on the trail, but it was a little bit, but not too far. I let him know what had happened to Shandy, so he could get back and help her (he is a nurse), and I left the trail and headed up the firehouse road to get the car and first aid kit. I was able to get to the car quickly and drive down the road where Royce had gotten Shandy and her bike to the road (which was only 14 feet away) and had her resting.

Royce took the first aid kit and took care of Shandy while I racked his and Shandy's bike. We both almost finished at the same time. From here he and Shandy went to the hospital and Mandy I continued on the trail back up to get my car. We lucked out having 2 cars today for our ride. I would have hated to take Mandy to the hospital and have her wait in the waiting room for a couple of hours, that is not fun for anyone.

Mandy and I enjoyed the rest of the ride. I was very impressed with how she did on the trail. Her only problem on the trail was clearing the 3 sisters rock formation. This turned out to be fun for her since she had to stop and while she was stopped she found a leaf that looked like a heart. Mandy also got to take some pictures and ham around for a few minutes. We finished our ride with Mandy continuing on the trail all the way to the Bowery.

Mandy's heart leaf. The 3 sisters rock formation as viewed from the eye of Mandy.

Mandy getting a shot of mom on her bike.
And of course the self-portrait--what a ham.After our ride we headed down to the hospital to see how Shandy was doing. Just as we got there Royce called and let me know Shandy was about done. So we continued on home with a small detour at Panda Express. Mandy thought it would be good for Shandy to have something to eat out rather than something at home, and she hated to see me cook after such a long day. She is so thoughtful ;-)

Shandy ended up having 10/11 stitches and needs to follow up with the doc on Monday. Since it was so deep we need to keep an eye on it to make sure she doesn't get an infection and of course she is taking antibiotics to help with the prevention of an infection.

All in all not too bad of a day, fun and eventful.